Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Dearest friends, fans, and assorted dirty rotten little bastards all over the world,

Since forming in 2007, this band has made 5 recordings, played close to 400 shows, toured to 22 wonderful countries and Belgium, and even got on the radio once. It has been, all things considered, one hell of a ride. But we're here to announce that as of right now we're going to seriously scale back our show schedule (from 140 shows per year to like, maybe twelve). Also, "Uncle Touchy Goes To College" will probably be our last recording.

There is, unfortunately for you gossip queens, nothing very dramatic about it. With all due respect to the "old guys" in the rock/punk world, we'd rather not end up like them.

Let us explain: we've seen older, more famous punk bands fill 2,000-person halls all over Europe then paint houses 6 months of the year just to make ends meet. We've seen A-list Epitaph-signed bands who are so sick and tired of touring that their live shows are almost a joke. But they gotta tour, or they (and their kids) don't eat. We've seen countless older guys in the industry--managers, musicians, promoters or what have you--who no longer give a shit about music and who would literally not be able to make it through each year without cocaine. "Living the dream", they call it.

So we're each off to get educations or start jobs or explore the world on our own, and trust us, there is absolutely nothing sad about that.

First, we're extremely proud of the music we've made and we think that it stands as something that is both (1) true to its roots, and (2) hopefully somewhat unique. If one band out there has been inspired to do things just a little bit differently because of us, we're fairly happy with that.

Second, music has given us a chance to see places we would never have dreamed of seeing. Eastern Poland, Western England and Chicoutimi, Quebec have become new homes for us all. We've seen the Kremlin and the Ukraine and Barcelona and Porto, been stuck in crazy latino-only American polka bars and slept at the top of colossal mountains in the Swiss alps. Not too shabby, eh.

Third, we have met the most incredible people and made lifelong friends on our various adventures. If we tried to name you all we would never be finished.

Anyway, we do have one major regret we'd like to mention. As of 2009, we started trying to do the "building" thing. We toured internationally, built our reputation and got to play for lots more people, but in order to try to get some stupid contract with some Canadian booking agent, we basically stopped playing Vancouver. The idea is that if you play one big show in your home city per year, you can fill a huge hall and the fucking big-fish booking agents get impressed.

We've had a few people complain about this to us, and they were right to. Vancouver wasn't just our home city, the place we cut our musical teeth, it was where we got that first "push" to get bigger in the first place. Our friends and fans at home supported us like crazy but we basically abandoned them in order to try to get a booking contract that never materialized, probably because we didn't pretend to be Irish. (Trust me, really, if we'd pretended to be Irish I fucking guarantee you that this particular agency would have signed us.) That sucked, and we're sorry, Vancouver. Um... it won't happen again?

Anyway: One reason folk and punk go so well together is that each of them is about community. A "scene" is just a community of friends, and the whole idea of folk music (and punk music) is that performances should be friends playing for friends. There are no rock stars, no egos, no fucking "images" and no-one is better than anyone else. Even if we joked around and occasionally pretended to be rock stars, we hope all of you knew that we're just your friends who happen to know how to play polkas very fast. That's it.

We'll probably play a few more shows here and there, and no-one knows for sure what the future will hold, but this Polka-punk train is gonna sit in the station for a while. We have a few more things to say about our time in "the biz", and we'll post them in the next couple of days. "

Hoist the Colors is the latest band from the burgeoning Californian scene to release an album in 2011. The 7 piece band from El Segundo has shared the stage with the likes of The Young Dubliners, The Mighty Regis, Brick Top Blaggers and Craic Haus.

Californian punk and influences by bands such as The Pogues, Flogging Molly or even sounds reminiscent from The Men They Couldn’t Hang have been blended with great instrumentation and backing vocals in “Second City”. The album is really enjoyable and the boys have done an excellent work. All the tracks are self-penned songs. Yes, neither traditional material, nor covers. Hats-off!

“The concept of the album is based around the story of one man (Patrick Finnegan) who is met with very difficult circumstances. He is taken from the girl he loves (Isabel), and when he returns, she has moved on. So the songs are about the daily battles in his mind and his struggle to keep some sanity about him which is what love can take away on a very human level.”

The first track on the album is “Second City”. A top-notch Celtic punk song. If you don’t believe me, then you should know that Lexington Field and Hoist the Colors are going to play together next September 17th. Beau Gray thinks that “Second City” is a "great fookin’ song" and he intends to come up and sing backups to “Second City” with Hoist the Colors, and they would join Lexington Field for “Tracy Boys”.

“The Rush” is another song with catchy chorus and excellent backing vocals in which banjo and mandolin take the lead. One of the numbers that reminds me of The Men They Couldn’t Hang.

“Long Lonely Road” is one of my faves. Some Californian punk influences on a song with a Pogues/Flogging Molly ending.

“No Place Like Home” has an acoustic beginning and then all the instruments are added. Top-notch banjo on it and more great vocal harmonies.

“The Dust Finally Settles” is a little bit quiet, sort of a Celtic Punk-pop, but it has good fiddle and guitar work.

“Fatal Fixation” has some cow punk influences and echoes from The Pogues (“The Wake of the Medusa”), The Men They Couldn’t Hang or Seven Little Sisters can be heard. Great mandolin, banjo and guitar.

“When I Left” is, in my opinion, the other single from the album. Josh Linden sings Patrick Finnegan’s part and Alice Ryan sings Isabel’s part: “Oh Patrick Finnegan, I thought the ocean had claimed you and to move on with my life I’m now somebody’s wife, I’m so sorry sweet boy”

“Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” is another Hoist the Colors typical song: clear vocals, good backing vocals, sound based on mandolin/banjo/fiddle and a classic Celtic punk ending à la Pogues with the boys shouting and screaming.

The rebel song number from the album is track no. 9, “Hymn for the Road”. Musically it reminds me of The Lash, the band from Michigan.

“Glen of Two Lakes” is also a track that stand outs. A Flogging Molly beginning, but then the song finds its own identity, a kind of a Polka. That’s maybe how The Dreadnoughts would sound if they were more American and less Eastern European.

The last two tracks show once again the main influences of the band: “When the Tides Returns”, The Pogues Celtic punk from the “Red Roses for Me” era and “Tonight We Drink Tomorrow We Die”, cow punk à la The Men They Couldn’t Hang.

The Californian Celtic punk scene is alive and kicking and Hoist the Colors is one of their main exponents. Forget about The Young Dubliners and The Fenians and focus on real Celtic punk bands like Hoist the Colors.

Tracklist:

1. Second City 3:05
2. The Rush 3:34
3. Long Lonely Road 4:48
4. No Place Like Home 3:02
5. The Dust Finally Settles 3:46
6. Fatal Fixation 4:11
7. When I Left 3:39
8. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea 3:57
9. Hymn for the Dead 2:49
10. Glen of Two Lakes (Glendalough) 3:37
11. When the Tide Returns 3:58
12. Tonight We Drink, Tomorrow We Die 4:02

Last year was an excellent year for Paddypunk. And it seems that 2011 is going to be as good as 2010: excellent albums by old bands and amazing recordings by new bands. And one of those amazing recordings is the 6 track EP released by the band from Cleveland (Ohio) Craic.

Craic is an eight piece band featuring drums, fiddle, bass, banjo, tin whistle, electric/acoustic guitars and 12-string acoustic guitar. Standard line-up for a Celtic punk band. Then, why are they so special? Because they have been able to develop their own sound. A blend of punk, Irish folk and bluegrass in which the banjo really shines. Yes, I know that other bands have banjos, but I feel that Mitch Kozub’s banjo has a different style. Add Brett Burlison’s vocals, the fiddle and tin whistle by the two girls (Andrea D’Amore and Nikki Wolfe), the guitars and the co-production by ex-Dropkick MurphysRyan Foltz and the result is “It’s Still New Enough that It’s Forgiveable”

Half of the tracks on the EP are self-penned songs. “Ishkabaha” (Uisce Beatha) is the right opening track. A catchy song that defines Craic’s sound based on banjo, fiddle and tin whistle. “Steppin’ Out” is another stand out. Great tin whistle and fiddle on a song with a DKM style chorus. Finally, “For the Man” is a song more American than Irish, another strong number that could be filed together with The Pogues “Rum, Sodomy and the Lash” album.

Regarding the traditional songs, “Irish Rover” can rival with both The Pogues and The Mahones renditions. Normally I wouldn’t recommend any band to record “Star of the County Down”: I feel that there are three top-notch renditions that can’t be improved (The Pogues, Oysterband and MacKeel). Anyway, Craic’s version is very interesting, with great fiddle and banjo arrangements. And the tongue-twister “Rattlin’ Bog” is performed exactly as it should be: the speed is constantly increased with each additional verse.

Remember the name, Craic, from Cleveland. They will be competing with the French band Celkilt for the award for the best EP of 2011. I’m already awaiting their debut album.

"Traditional Irish music as well as deep rooted South African folk have a lot in common in terms of music styles. A couple of guys, some from Irish/Scottish heritage and others from their deep rooted Afrikaans heritage decided to do away with their noisy punk rock riffs and look a little deeper into their roots. Combining it with the punk rock and roll they have grown up on as a staple diet of their daily lives. T.S.P. began with a few teething problems at first as a new band. Firstly there was the quest to find suitable members who would share the same interest as to where T.S.P. was going. This above all proved to be the most difficult task as most young people today have forgotten their roots and ancestory and where their heritage has come from over the years.

Mutiny abound ye scurvey land lubbers!!

After over a year of patience and almost giving up, some of the lads decided to give it one more shot which eventualy paid off.

Clint, Gene and Michiel showed up on T.S.P.'s door step foaming at their mouths. Too much Guinness or just plain craziness? We will never know. One week of hard finger bleeding practice with the new lads, we all had a feeling something was missing. It was out there, stuck in the briggs of a ship somewhere out at sea. As the winds changed towards us we could hear it, the soothing wail of the most beautiful Violin to grace a mans ears.

The beautiful Miss Ankia flew into T.S.P. barely a week before the first show. Her talent and skill at Violin has welled up many a teary eye at T.S.P.'s practices with the lads.

One week before the first show the impossible was achieved. A bunch of mostly complete strangers not onlypulled out enough mind blowing tracks for a show but also quickly became united as not only musicians but as a family and this ladies and gents is their vessel. Their ship."

"Mick - A derogatory term for an Irishman, usually Catholic and sometimes drunk

The Micks first began when John Walsh (Vox/Guitar) was asked to play a benefit concert run by Clothing Cures, a non-profit organization rasing money for underprivileged kids in Malawi. John asked Jack McFeely (Drums), who he had grown up with and played music with many times before, if he would like to team up to play or...iginal songs. After a few months of practicing, both decided they should keep the act going, and decided to call it The Micks. After a few months of playing and practicing, the two teamed up with Joe Jacques (Bass), who met John through high school. The three have been playing ever since and continue to play till they are stopped by a greater force.http://www.myspace.com/themicksNYChttp://themicks.bandcamp.comhttp://www.facebook.com/themicksnyc?sk=app_2309869772http://twitter.com/#!/themicksny

"Stramash in essence are a Celtic/Folk Rock Band who originally formed in 2008 as a tribal pipe and drum band. After 2 years of extensive touring they opted for a bigger, more electrified sound, and Stramash was born.

Stramash bring something old and something new to the celtic folk world, they have taken well known traditional Scottish tunes and re-invented them into powerful folk rock ballads without losing the traditional feel and flow of the story or song. With a wide array of original material ranging from folk ballads to celtic funk, Stramash are pushing the envelope wide open to encompass a whole new generation. Already gaining a widespread reputation for their sweet vocal harmonies and powerful melodies, Stramash are destined for great success.

Stramash are a diverse and experienced musical ensemble consisting of Andrew Lowrie on Drums and Vocals, Andrew Jackson on Guitar, Mandolin and Lead Vocals, William Maxwell on Bass and Vocals, Michael Gilfeather on Lead Guitar and Vocals, Tony Collins on Highland/Border Pipes, Whistle and Flute. Stramash are visually brought together with the fearsome tribal dances and energetic percussion of the bands Fomorian women Kay Anne Affleck, Lindsey Newman and Sammie Black."

"In 1990 June Tabor and Oysterband collaborated on the classic Freedom And Rain album – frequently regarded as one of the Top 5 Folk albums of all time. Twenty one years later they’ve reconvened, to record the magnificent Ragged Kingdom. The album will be released on Monday 19th September.

Invited to reunite for fRoots’ 30th birthday party at the Roundhouse they all came off-stage determined to make a belated follow-up to their earlier collaboration.

”The spark” says Oysterband’s Ian Telfer “is we really feel we do something together which is different from what we do as separate acts. There is something in the combination of June’s exquisite dark voice with the supple energy of Oysterband that greatly pleases us. June comes to recording fantastically well prepared: every nuance of meaning and feeling considered in advance and plotted in her mind. Then she stands in the studio and delivers one perfect take, like an act of Chinese calligraphy. Or maybe Chinese cooking: the work is all in the preparation.” "

The Pauki is not really a Celtic punk band, but a punk band that adds pipes and/or flute to some of the tracks. Their music is known as beer-core. They play punk, oi!, hardcore, metal … and their lyrics are about booze, football and pirates.

All the songs are in Russian, but the excellent digipack includes a booklet with their English translation. There are a couple of instrumentals, the opening track “Voice of Kilt” and track no. 13, “Spiderland Tatto”. The former features bagpipes and the latter is an interesting surf music track. Apart from that, there are a couple of remixes (the least appealing numbers, IMHO)

The tracks featuring the folk instruments are:

“Voice of Kilt” (pipes) a good street punk number.

“Control” (pipes), one of the best songs of the album, a top-notch number that recalls me Die Doedelsäcke last album.

The Band from County Hell "Shifts & Changes"Release date: April 2010Running time: 40:09, 10 tracks

The Band from County Hell (BFCH) is a band hailing from Lincolnshire (England). The band is fronted by Glasgow-born Jock McLelland, who plays guitar, composes the music and shares vocal duties with her wife, Joolz McLelland, who writes the lyrics and plays bodhrán. The third member of the McLelland family in the band is multi-instrumentalist Ben McLeland (fiddle, accordion and tin whistle).

“Shifts & Changes” is the band’s sixth album. It has been recorded in three different studios (including The Levellers’ Metway) and has been produced by the well-known Mancunian producer and engineer Jim Spencer.

It’s obvious that the band’s main influence is The Pogues and BFCH label themselves as Indie Celts. In fact, they are said to be an excellent festival band. However, there are no covers or traditional numbers on the album. All of the tracks are self-penned songs and some of them feature piano, trombone, trumpet or saxophone.

My faves are “Pussycat” (a strong fiddle led number sung by Joolz), “Meet The Folks” (a good Celtic pop number that features brass, accordion, fiddle and piano; Jocks sings some lines and Joolz sings another ones), “But it Did” (the first single off “Shifts & Changes”. The song begins with the tin whistle and then the other instruments join before Jock sings in a Celtic punk style), “Will You” (this song features a Gaelic verse by Daithí O’Geanainn and is a catchy Celtic rock number sung by Joolz with excellent fiddle and accordion by Ben) and “Liberty” (lead vocals by Joolz, accordion at the beginning, then the song goes faster with tin whistle, fiddle and mandolin. A good British folk rock number)

If you like both Celtic punk and Celtic rock music, BFCH “Shifts & Changes” could be a good addition to your collection.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

This is Beltaine's Fire second album. It can be downloaded for free from Jamendo. Remember that their debut album is also available at Jamendo.

"Beltaine's Fire is one of a very small number of Celtic Hip Hop bands on the planet. They seamlessly blend radical politics and deeply personal human lyrics with live instrumentals that draw on everything from traditional celtic melodies to funk, rock, folk, and hip hop to create a totally unique sound. It is Ancient and Modern, as old as song and brand new, and Revolutionary in every sense of the word."

If you enjoy the music please lend the band your financial support as well so they can continue to create and release quality independent music. The album is available at bandcamp and the quality is better (FLAC or 320 kbps instead of 192kbps)

"Liberty, the second album from Indie folk / Celtic / world / live hip hop band Beltaine's Fire. If you like what your hear and want to support us so we can write and record new material please buy the album at

First, I just wanted to thank everyone again for making the fundraiser for Pat's tribute album a huge success. I'll have more updates soon on the progress of the album and the artists involved. I'm excited and happy to announce that starting on August 18th-20th, I'll be making regular appearances at Murphy's Grand Irish Pub in Virginia Beach (and then in Alexandria starting in 2012). As most Ceann fans know, Murphy's was home away from home for Patrick and the band for over five years and I'm honored to have the opportunity to play there myself. Now, I need to be clear, these are not Ceann shows. These are my own solo shows. After this, all my updates and emails will come from my own reverbnation & facebook pages. So anyone who is interested in following me and coming to these shows can fan me athttp://www.facebook.com/brianhalloranmusichttp://www.reverbnation.com/brianhalloran

I will still always be ready and happy to play Pat's songs for anyone who wishes to hear them. My shows, especially Murphy's shows, will always be about celebrating Pat's music and legacy, while also trying to carve out my own niche.

Also, on September 17th, several other Ceann members will be joining me in VA Beach for the Southern Virginia Irish Festival. I look forward to the opportunity to play with them again and I hope to see you there!

If you wanna hear a sample, visit our 'NOIZE' page, then if you wanna buy it, visit our 'DOSHSWAP' page.

On our 'DOSHSWAP' page you can pay by cheque, cash or paypal/debit/credit card - just scroll down the page to find it.

For the trendier kids amongst you who have long since ceased to deal with hard copy albums, we also have direct links to i-Tunes and Amazon right at the bottom of our 'DOSHSWAP' page. (See 6 below)

Nice.

It's all rather quite good... and so say all of us...

2) TORCHWOOD

Is it just me or does anyone else think the American version of it is just plain too slow, dumbed down and shite!? Roll on the new series of Dr Who. The footie season is back with us too and no doubt my team 'Wolves' will endeavour to ensure I get more sleepless nights and final whistle induced stress this season again.

3) NEW PICS: Check 'em out.

Our new promo pics are on our 'PIX N MIX' page... thanks to Andy for the promo pics... we owe you a pint or three.

4) BACK TO THE CD BUSINESS...

Folk 'n' Glory is 11 tracks long. Having been done 1,2,3,4, stylee all together in a room through hot valves straight to our budget pc - and it's got a lo-fi charm all of its own. We went for that 60's/70's vibe with band in a room having fun feel and we thinks that's exactly what we've got. Folk 'n' Glory has quite a retro feel to the music and artwork, which we think you'll be pleased with, we are. Deffo folkier than Politics and on a par with fiddle-punkin' 'Propaganda' for that soundscape to the revolution Foxie is planning every day. Yay, that's getting closer too by the way...

5) RIOTS

Oh yeah, I have something to say... but I will keep it short.

Martin Luther King said something like "riots are the language of the unheard". This last week has seen rioting of a type and scale never seen before in England. I believe this is history in the making and we probably have not seen the last of it. The unheard have certainly been heard now, but sadly their words have no cohesion or direction and their cry will be ignored in a wave of political spin, propaganda and lies about criminality being the only trigger and propaganda-ised news stories about teaching assistants and graphic designers etc being arrested and sentenced as if to justify that no disaffected youth took part.

The root causes will go uninvestigated and continue to fester in this 'Daily Mail' version of England we seem to have inherited since May 2010. Tottenham (75% cut in youth service budgets, one of the highest unemployment rates in London, regular police stop & search of black youth), kicked off for a reason but that reason seems to have been lost in the shouting and rhetoric.

But I have a simple question... what has happened to make people feel it is ok to loot, burn and destroy their own community or hurt, maim or kill others to achieve no end but self-gain? I fear this question will never be answered and all we will continue to get is soundbites from Tory millionaires et al about gangs, criminals, rubber bullets, army and water cannon.

We have witnessed a move from the political riot to outrage without purpose or direction, born of the excess of our capitalist consumer driven society. A society that sees politicians and bankers looting the nations wealth - yes I use the word looting, as I see no difference except theirs is a different kind of violence - while the police and the media make whoopee with bungs for stories that take any sense of public duty or moral guardianship to the lowest level possible. At the same time violence is sanitised and made acceptable as we bomb and invade other countries for dubious reasons and to control oil.

And then we wonder why people at the lowest levels of society decide to take something for themselves and use a language they can relate to and the media watch - violence.

It does not make it right of course but I hope we do learn some lessons and start to understand that while our Governments look after their rich mates, cut our public services, starve education, export our jobs and offer nothing in return to the most disadvantaged, an LCD TV seems a small price to pay. The Government want to thank their lucky stars it never turned into a mass focused and political demonstration like in Libya or Egypt... now that would be something to take to the streets for.

Oh, ps, has anyone noticed like me that the initial police response smacked of political jockeying?

6) WE IS ON I-TUNES ETC ETC.

Those of you who are missing our earlier albums will be pleased to hear they are now on Spotify, as well as being available to download from iTunes, Amazon MP3, Play, 7digital, and many other fine vendors of digital music.

Note: you can no longer get hold of our old albums either by purchase or free mp3 download. If you want to get your mitts on the old stuff you will sadly have to visit Spotify or i-Tunes etc.

If this pisses some of you off, we apologise for that but gigs, touring (the van is always in one state or another of disrepair) recording and producing stuff costs a lot of wedge and we just can't afford to give it away for free anymore. You might have noticed that our gig calender is a little thin this year too and that makes matters worse.

If you cannot afford to buy anything due to unemployment or low wage... and love us loads... contact (me) Foxie and I will email you some mp3 stuff for free... provided that you are genuine and not a freeloader.

7) FORUM.

Or blogspot as it is now called. Ewan 'keeping it nice' Porter hyphen Stevens will be doing future blogs as he is the dude with the notebook, pen and GPS camera with 'cake' and 'puppy' settings.

8) FINALLY.

After finishing the album which was some quite intense work for several months, I felt a little burnt out, but the fire is starting to burn again and I am getting some new snippets of ideas for songs... always good to have a Tory Government for this purpose.

Plus, we have a 'B' sides collection of tracks too that we plan to record later in the year with a couple of surprises thrown in for good measure. Keep an eye out for that! I want to call it 'Worcester Sauce' as it will be a recording in Worcester and its saucy, trust me you'll have to run with this idea...

Finally finally... As you may see, we don't have many gigs this year, so all the more important you say hello when we do play a gig. This is a rebuilding year for us, so the album and promo of it has to be a priority. We already have some nice reviews coming in and it has been interesting to see what people make of our home-grown-produced album.

So far the verdict seems to be 'best thing we've ever done'. Which is good, no it's better than good it's effin great! So if you ain't got 'Folk 'n' Glory' yet, please buy it and see what it's all about.

We'll see where all this reviewing of the album and planning for 2012 takes us, and hopefully the new album will mean more gigs in the future... so fingers crossed.

We hope to see some of you, all of you, new friends, old friends, lost friends at a gig soon, when they eventually happen, so don't be strangers!

"Since I’m finally taking a minute to have a cold one and look back on the amazing tour we just had...so many times..a nice Ontario run with Gentleman Husbands was just what we needed to get our grits in gear for the long drives and plentiful shows we had lined up for the month. Those guys are some top notch dudes and we gigged some top notch venues. It's always so nice to do the 401-run for you guys!!

Then we did some shows in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland with The Trews, while completely behaving ourselves the whole way... Everyone was so great, and we left Newfoundland wanting to never leave. Big thanks to our buds Megan and Jason for puttin us up in their island paradise and treatin us poor bastards so very well! As well as all the people who came out to the shows and had a good time and made us feel so very welcome... we won't forget it!...

Which brings me to the business part of this blargg.. We've got some new tour dates coming up with a little band you might have heard of called Flogging Molly...

September 16th @ Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, New Jersey, USA

September 19th @ The National, Richmond, Virginia, USA

September 23rd @ The Majestic Theatre, St. John's, NFLD

September 24rd @ The Majestic Theatre, St. John's, NFLD

September 26th @ The New Palace, Halifax, NS

September 27th @ Oxygen Club, Moncton, NB

September 29th @ The Sound Academy, Toronto, ON

2 shows in Newfoundland. Good on you guys! We're glad to be coming back and opening up for a band you clearly love given-er to! These other dates aren't anything to be shakin' no stick at either. We're truly thankful to be spending our September like this! Also we put a new video out, and MuchLoud has been gracious enough to put it into rotation. So if you possess that television channel there at yer domicile, keep an eye out for us. You can also check it out with this link:

Our new album "Wall of Folk"is going to be released on September 9th. There will be two versions:

1) Standard Edition: One Audio-CD, 14 tracks

2) Deluxe Edition: Besides the Standard Edition CD this package will contain an additional Bonus-CD containing another 6 new Songs and a DVD including the complete video recording of the Summer Breeze Festival 2010 show!

Both album editions can be preordered now in our Online Shop.When you order in time you'll get the album at the release date September 9th, 2011!

Michael Rhein and Marco Zorzytzky (Das letzte Einhorn and der Biegsame of In Extremo) are guest musicians on "Fields Of Green / Nie zu spät". Moreover, Colin Goldie played whitles/flutes on some of the tracks.

The subject line basically says it all. After almost 3 years of work "Anarchitecture" is finally finished and ready. This is our third album and the first to be recorded in our own studio and the first to be professionally mixed and mastered. Not to say that 'Weapon of the Future' and 'Liberty' weren't awesome, but "Anarchitecture" sounds so much better. I can't really even tell you how excited we are to have it ready to go.

That's the good news. The even better news is that from now until the album releases on August 31 we're offering 2 tracks we recorded in our first sessions for Anarchitecture - way back in 2009 with our old lineup - as free bonus tracks for people who pre-order. These songs were just too good to leave unreleased but we didn't want to put them out earlier because we weren't sure whether we'd be re-recording them or not. As it turned out, it's damn hard to improve on something that's already perfect so we didn't re-do them. Grab the album now and they're yours.

The album is radio friendly (no curse words), partly because we know a lot of ya'll prefer it that way and partly because we figured it wasn't worth the expense to create 2 versions.

"Anarchitecture" is name-your-own-price with a $5 minimum. Call it sliding scale, throw what you can in the hat and enjoy the music. We're counting on ya'll to support us - we had to front a pretty heft chunk of change for mixdowns and mastering to get this album sounding right. We think it was worth it, we hope you'll agree.

In other news:

If you haven't already seen it, we posted the complete unedited video of our set at the Laurel solstice festival on youtube:

Lastly, I'd like to take a second and say "fuck the police" real quick. And that includes the police in San Francisco who shot and killed a man for evading bus fare a few weeks back (http://www.ktvu.com/news/28573517/detail.html) and the Met police in London who blew a mans head off last week and sparked the riots that are currently burning England down. I can't claim any kind of inside knowledge about either shooting but I can say that the world would be a much better and freeer place if the governments of the world were scared of the people instead of the people being scared of the police. Looting doesn't make revolutions. But I don't think there's ever been a revolution that didn't include at least a bit of looting.

All the 'buy our album!' sales talk aside, the real point of this music is to help build a vision of a better more free and more just world. I've done the best I can with these lyrics - not just on this album but on every album I've released in the last decade - to help lay a blueprint for what that better world might look like. I hope you'll will support that vision and that effort and even more I hope you'll enjoy the songs.

"The Dreadnoughts are a 5-piece folk-punk band from Vancouver. The band combines a wide range of European folk music with modern street punk.The Dreadnoughts formed in 2007 in the Downtown Eastside area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Noticeable influences in their sound include acts such as The Pogues, Gogol Bordello, Goran Bregovic, and Rancid. The band commonly record and perform Sea Shanties, polkas and klezmer songs, and are also strongly influenced by English West Country folk music. Generally they aim to provide an alternative form of folk-punk which is not dominated by Irish and Irish American themes.

Their 2009 release, Victory Square was ranked the 4th-best folk-punk release of 2009 by folk-punk magazine Shite N' Onions.Their previous release, Legends Never Die, was ranked #7 on the magazine's 2008 list.Multiple cross-Canada tours and European tours have helped to contribute to the band's steadily rising profile.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Whole Peeled was a band from Dunedin (New Zealand), which was active from 1992 to 1997.

"Whole Peeled first drew media attention as the junkyard band from the Green Island Rubbish tip. Their ingenious use of bicycles, washing machines and old crockery to create new and beautiful music was hailed as marvelous.

However, they soon tired of the restrictive and smelly conditions that came with performing at the rubbish dump, so the band decided to save up and invest in real musical instruments. Marky Joyce pawned his smurf collection to buy a drum kit. Wazza sold his baby teeth in a macabre raffle and got a telecaster, Tbaz managed to catch enough hedgehogs (each with a $10 bounty on their heads) to buy a decent violin. For a while, Fras and Sam didn't have instruments so when the band played they sang and danced around like mad men until the band could afford to purchase a bass for Fras and guitar and mandolin for Sam.

The band truely hit its stride about the summer of 1995. That's when the mayhem began. They toured the country (New Zealand) and released their music on CD (it was still kind of new and cool in 1996) as well as a really really rare record (20 copies) which is still sought after today.

About mid 1997 the band decided to revert to a junkyard band, having become tired of the smokey atmospheres and drunk patrons. However, their junkyard music is now influenced by the kiwi-celtic sound that they'd become well known for.

It should be noted that Whole Peeled also played more acoustic oriented music under the name of The Maud Gonne Band.

The band of the month is from Glasgow (Scotland): Stramash. The Reverbnation widget will be placed at the left

"Stramash in essence are a Celtic/Folk Rock Band who originally formed in 2008 as a tribal pipe and drum band. After 2 years of extensive touring they opted for a bigger, more electrified sound, and Stramash was born"

Anarcho folk punk, British fiddle punk, Festival folk punk... I don’t know which is the right label. Anyway, I’m talking about those excellent British Levellers type bands: Tofu Love Frogs, Tricks Upon Travellers, Bleeding Hearts … Among them, Bleeding Hearts have always shined. Their debut album, “Fly in The Face of Fashion” is a true gem that every music fan should get. Foxie and his mates have followed a more coherent career than the Levellers: Bleeding Hearts are not living on their first album, but they have not got the recognition that they deserve.

The band has had some ups and downs. Their fiddler left the band somewhere in 2008. Fortunately, they found a great replacement: Mark “Madfiddler” Knight (Tricks Upon Travellers, K-Passa, Bluehorses ...) Due to other commitments, Mark was obliged to leave Bleeding Hearts and he was not able to record their last album, “Folk’n’Glory”. But once again the band found the best replacement, the Welsh fiddler Lizzie Prendergast (Bluehorses founding member).

I feel that “Folk’n’Glory” is probably their best album since “Fly in the Face of Fashion”. “Bombs of Deception” is a top-notch song, better than many Levellers songs. “Drinking Song” is another catchy song with a contribution by Madfiddler. “Folk’n’Glory” is slightly different from what they had done till now, but it’s one of the best moments of the album A mid-tempo song, then they shift to an upbeat tune and finally a live in studio ending (“Sing with Me, Oooooh This is England my Home, Ooooh This is England Land of Folk’n’Glory”.

“Fakebook” features their own rocking rendition of “Gravel Walk” and I find that “Something I Can Never Me” is the best track of the album. The song sounds different, maybe it’s Lizzie’s influence on the songwriting and those tribal backing vocals. I love this track.

“We’re All in This Together” runs more than six minutes, a slow number that features a great mandolin work by Ewan. Brian is a fast punk-folk number that could have made on The Levellers “Letters from the Underground”, but it has been written by Foxie. And “In the Name of The People” is a reggae that shows the versatility of the band.

Bleeding Hearts sound is probably at its peak now. Foxie, Gaz and Gel have been joined by two excellent musicians, Lizzie (fiddle) and Ewan (mandolin) whose contributions are essential to the band’s sound. Foxie has made an awesome job as producer with a low budget. If Bleeding Hearts have been able to record “Folk’n’Glory” on their own and to get this result, one is wondering what they could have offered us with a better studio and a producer like Al Scott or Pat Collier.

If you enjoy the Levellers early albums, then you should buy Bleeding Hearts “Folk’n’Glory”. And if you are a Celtic punk fan, but have never listened to any British fiddle punk band, “Folk’n’Glory” is a good start. A band that says in the liner notes “Go out, form a band an rebel!” is worth hearing, isn’t it?

Tracklist:

1 - Concept: Economocracy 2:072 - Bombs of Deception 4:003 - Drinking Song 3:464 - Folk'n'Glory 4:375 - Fakebook 5:026 - Something I can Never Be 3:347 - We're All in This Together 6:308 - Brian 2:569 - Modern World 4:2310 - In the Name of the People 5:1711 - Ballad of the Fallen Soldier 5:30